Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Tweet Bag! Your questions answered!

In a fit of boredom, and unable to think of anything to write about the Jays and their rainout this afternoon, we came up with this idea: You tweet your questions on the Jays, baseball, life, love, snack foods, movies, music, style, relationships or what have you to us, and we'll give it at least a cursory thought before answering flippantly.

If only one of Marcum, McGowan, Litsch was able to return to form and you had the choice of which who would you pick?

Maybe this is a sign that we've given up a little bit on Dusty Lampchops, but we'd have to go with Shaun Marcum. Marcum isn't a big body with scary velocity, but he's got (or at least, had) great movement on his pitches and could excel with guile.

Marcum, for his career, has a 3.95 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP in 396.2 IPs, whereas McGowan has posted a 4.71 ERA and 1.37 ERA in 353.2 IPs. While the former wasn't the top prospect type, he's certainly zoomed past McGowan once the reached the big leagues. (Which probably tells you something about Top Prospects lists, doesn't it?)

Frankly, we don't even think he's got the greatest name in his family. That honour would go to Dane Iorg, which has the benefit of sounding both regal and like an endtable from Ikea.

In terms of great baseball names, we've got to go with Kiko Calero as our current favorite. In any baseball video game we play, we always go get him, because we just love to hear the name over and over again. Kiko Calero. Kiko Calero.

We probably have a bit of a fixation on latin names in general. Like Yovanni Gallardo or Jair Jurrjens. And when it comes to hockey, we can't get enough of Finnish names. Our all time favorite name ever is that of former Ottawa Senators head scout and director of player personnel Jarmo Kekäläinen. How awesome is that name? Two times awesomer than you think! (And no wonder the Sens have drafted like a bunch of drunk monkeys lately...no Kekäläinen!)

And of course, there's the unmatchable majesty of the name Marc Rzepczynski, which we only just then wrote for the first time without having to look it up.

So the answer is, unfortunately, no. Not the greatest name. And we're not just saying that because he's the one who feebly made the last out against the Tigers in 1987.

In light of the weather in Dunedin, how about the top 5 Jays games you wish had been rained out?

Maybe we would have just been delaying the inevitable, but that last game of the 1987 season for sure, as well as the one a week or so earlier when Bill Madlock broke Tony Fernandez on a take out slide, costing the Jays a key part of their offensive and defensive strength that year.

We'd probably also rain out the game in Texas where Roy Halladay took a Kevin Mench liner off the leg in his start before the All-Star Game, which he was also likely to start.

Nothing aside from that comes to mind. Given the alternative, we'd rather see them play on, regardless of the weather. Anyone else got a thought?

It's summer 2011, who is the more valuable bat? snider, wallace, ruiz.

Ooh! Prognosticating! We like it. First off, we'd like to say that in the Summer of 2011, there will be a song that you hate but that everyone else loves and plays non-stop throughout those months. Take that to the bank.

As for the hitters: We've got too much invested in Snider at this point not to go with him. We actually have a feeling that Wallace could be a 30 homer, .900 OPS guy, but maybe not for a few years. (Supposing the fake Mayans weren't right about 2012, in which case, we'd trade the entire system for Albert Pujols and Hanley Ramirez, and make one last run for it then.)

As for Ruiz: We love him, and we want to see him blow the roof off the dump. But we'll need to see it before we completely totally believe it.

well, delmon can't crack an outfield of denard span, michael cuddyer and jason kubel. the twinkies have nick punto slotted to play third, and at least e5 is young with a 25hr bat. as for the gingers, litsch is serviceable, and purcey has a strong left arm and the faintest whiff of a top-20 pick.

On the subject of great names. I loved Sixto Leszcano. Hipolito Pichardo is a great handle, and as far as goofy goes, someone named Jimmy Gobble (funny enough) came up as Billy Joe, unless there's more than one Gobbler. Er, that'sd be B.J. Gobble, which is frikking hilarious.

My friend has noted that Buck Coats porn name is X-actly his own real name -- and he'd fit several genres ...